In Warframe the “Beam Weapons” are getting updated soon. They will be returned to the way they were originally intended.
Warframe is currently undergoing some significant changes. A number of notoriously overpowered or underpowered Warframe classes have been adjusted. Additionally, dozens of firearms have been thoroughly reworked and reclassified into ranks.
However, the beam weapons were lacking until now. That is about to change.
Beam Weapons are getting nostalgic
Beam weapons were once true killers in Warframe. On one hand, they were hitscan weapons. This means that the shooter only needs to have the target in the crosshairs. As soon as he pulls the trigger, the target is hit as long as it is aimed at. There is no recoil or deviation.
In addition, there was an extraordinarily high chance of triggering status effects such as “Burn” or “Radiation Damage”. This was calculated based on the fire frequency. So if a weapon had a frequency of 12, it would check if an effect occurs 12 times per second.
However, this cost a lot of system resources, and so the developers changed the weapons so that, among other things, they only checked for a chance of a status effect once per second.
New power for Amprex, Ignis, and Co.
Since the beginnings of Warframe, a lot has changed in terms of performance. Therefore, the developers feel ready to bring the beam weapons back into the game as they were originally planned.
Since a weapon that can trigger a status effect several times per second and always hits is quite powerful, some limitations have been implemented:
- The range is generally low. This is especially a significant disadvantage in the expansive Plains of Eidolon.
- The weapon starts with only 10 percent of its damage and only reaches the full 100 percent damage output after 0.8 seconds of firing
- After a second of firing pause, the damage falls back to 10 percent.
To avoid wasting ammunition, beam weapons only consume 0.5 ammunition units per hitscan check. This corresponds to the fire rate. A weapon with a rate of 12 will therefore use 6 ammunition units per second.
More adjustments in the next patch
To adapt the beam weapons to the new weapon system in Warframe, they will also be reclassified and possibly modified. Overall, they will be significantly stronger and feel different than before. This pleases the community!
Additionally, there are other new features, including:
- More Endo rewards for daily Simaris tasks
- Charged skills no longer trigger automatically when fully charged, but when you release the button
- No more Kavat buffs for the Operator
You can find the complete patch notes of the update in the Warframe forum.
The patch is initially set to be released for PC and ideally go online later this week.
